Yard walls and gates, heights?

[Royal42]

Hello all,

I am continuing with my scratchbuilding diorama and have reached the stage of constructing the upper roadways, walls and gates. 

This image shows the walls and entrance gates I need to build but I don't know what their heights are.

 

The gates look to be about 6 feet high but I'm not sure;  is there a building standard for wall heights and gates for businesses?  This is the only view that I have been able to find of the location.

 

cheers,
Mike

[iands]

25 minutes ago, Royal42 said:

Hello all,

I am continuing with my scratchbuilding diorama and have reached the stage of constructing the upper roadways, walls and gates. 

This image shows the walls and entrance gates I need to build but I don't know what their heights are.

 

The gates look to be about 6 feet high but I'm not sure;  is there a building standard for wall heights and gates for businesses?  This is the only view that I have been able to find of the location.

 

cheers,
Mike

Only guessing, but I think that the walls & gates would need to be sufficiently high to deter anyone from climbing over them, but not overly high so as to keep the building cost as low as possible, so you're probably right at about 6ft. or just over. 

[DGO]

 Vehicle gates are usually a bit higher, 6ft 6" to 8ft is common, with walls often slightly higher than the gates, this makes it harder for people to pull themselves up to see what's the other side. There's no standard size for yard walls, though typically the more secure the requirements the higher the wall I'd say the walls in your pic will be between 7 and 8ft with supporting columns perhaps a ft higher.

 

 

[Royal42]

Thanks.  Around the corner, to the right of that view, the walls look considerably higher and appear to be a different structure type, therefore I couldn't use this view as a reference.

 

I shall work on the gates at 6ft 6in and the wall between 7ft and 8ft.

cheers,
Mike

[DGO]

23 hours ago, Royal42 said:

Thanks.  Around the corner, to the right of that view, the walls look considerably higher and appear to be a different structure type, therefore I couldn't use this view as a reference.

 

I shall work on the gates at 6ft 6in and the wall between 7ft and 8ft.

cheers,
Mike

Is that actually a wall or is it in fact a series of wooden panels perhaps hiding a building site, if the latter then the panels are going to be 8ft x 4ft probably sat on a 9 inch board at pavement level, if I'm right about the panels then the billboards are probably 32 or 48 sheet size which is either 160 x 120 inches or 240 x 120 inches.

 

Note that commercial yard walls are usually just a bit higher than modern garden walls (which are often 5 to 6 ft tall) but that older garden walls e.g Victorian vegetable garden walls may be as much as 12 ft in height, these taller walls will have to be double brick thickness to stand up.

 

Edited July 8, 2021 by DGO

[Royal42]

Hi DGO,

Thanks for your comments/query, I was intrigued by your question about the colour photo as I have always thought these were brick. 

 

Having re-checked, I realise that it is indeed a building site, actually a demolished building site.  That area was the site of the old parcel sorting building of the Head Post Office (GPO).  The building was a substantial affair, as can be seen in the top right of the b/w photo, under the wording "High walls?", so that colour picture is now irrelavant for wall descriptions. 

 

I am scratchbuilding the large pub/hotel, the Golden Eagle, shown in the centre of the colour image; the walls and gates in the b/w image are about 200ft to the right of the pub as seen on this map.

 

 

 

 

 

cheers,
Mike

Edited July 9, 2021 by Royal42

[DGO]

7 hours ago, Royal42 said:

Hi DGO,

Thanks for your comments/query, I was intrigued by your question about the colour photo as I have always thought these were brick. 

 

Having re-checked, I realise that it is indeed a building site, actually a demolished building site.  That area was the site of the old parcel sorting building of the Head Post Office (GPO).  The building was a substantial affair, as can be seen in the top right of the b/w photo, under the wording "High walls?", so that colour picture is now irrelavant for wall descriptions. 

 

I am scratchbuilding the large pub/hotel, the Golden Eagle, shown in the centre of the colour image; the walls and gates in the b/w image are about 200ft to the right of the pub as seen on this map.

 

 

 

 

 

cheers,
Mike

Google is your friend, there is still a very small portion of old wall remaining adjacent to the rail lines, to the right of the left hand gate where the curved  retaining wall next to the tracks meets the road. I'd say that the wall to the left was 24 bricks high (call it 8ft) with a 6 inch high stone cap on the top. Whilst the wall to the right is harder to work out but was probably a similar height, stepped occasionally due to the road gradient probably in 6 inch height steps it may or may not have also had stone capping , of course you could always go there with a tape measure to verify :-) PS The wall on the left was red brick, but the walls around the tracks are a deeper more plum colour. 

 

[Royal42]

Thanks again.  I have been absorbed in 1958 for so long that I completely forgot about modern methods!   That piece of wall, with the curve, is a great find and matches my original plan.  You are right about the brickwork on the inside overlooking the tracks, it is blue-grey; however, at various stages around the railway (c1958) some walls were faced with brown brick.  That find of remnants on Google verify that. 

Ooh, it's just like Time Team!

 

This is the curved brickwork on the oposite corner and is all brown brick around the outside.

 

cheers,
Mike

Edited July 9, 2021 by Royal42